ANZ Trialing NFC Wallet System

A few months ago we reported on Westpac trialing a new NFC mobile payment system. ANZ yesterday announced a similar trial as part of a new banking upgrade program. ‘ANZ mobile wallet’ is a plan to use NFC technology on Android devices in order to make mobile payments.

25 members of the ANZ staff are current trialing the wallet system using the Samsung Galaxy S III, with the aim to roll it out to customers by mid 2013. The secure element used in this implementation is embedded in the phones SIM, as is becoming the standard in other similar NFC payment systems around the world including the Westpac trial. The trial is being conducted with partners Optus and Visa. Payments under $100 won’t require a PIN and receipts will be displayed on screen after each transaction.

The recent uptake of the new NFC technology by a number of banks is a massive boost to Australians, since Google refuse to roll out their own popular Google Wallet system outside the US. Until recently, Google’s own system was being used by some Australians by use of a ‘hack’ using the Prepaid Card option available to Google Wallet. But Google have now ceased the Prepaid Card option, thus rendering Google Wallet completely unavailable to anyone in Australia.